SRI KRISHNA DEVARAYA BIOGRAPHY

Krishnadevaraya was a prominent ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire of South
India. As the third ruler of the Tuluva Dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire, he
extended the empire to most of South India, which included present-day Karnataka,
Northern Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, stretching upwards in the northeast to
Cuttack. He ascended the throne during the most critical stage of the empire
and went on to consolidate it as a flourishing empire. He played a major role
in defeating the Bahmani Sultans and Portuguese, forcing them to retreat their
plans of expanding their empire beyond their boundaries.Along with his prime minister and mentor, Timmarusu, he
defeated the Bahmani Sutans, thereby conquering their fortresses of Bidar,
Gulbarga, Raichur, and Bijapur. He led a major campaign against theGajapatis of Odisha, following which he seized and captured the fortresses of
Udayagiri, Kondavalli and Kondavidu. He is often compared with the greatest
emperors of Asia and Europe, due to his brilliant achievements and exceptional
ability to maintain political stability in the Deccan. By ruling the three most
powerful territories in the southern peninsula of India, he was known by
different titles, earned asa mark
of respect, such as ‘Kannada Rajya Rama Ramana’ (Lord of the Kannada empire)
and ‘Andhra Bhoja and ‘Mooru Rayara Ganda’ (King of three Kings).Krishnadevaraya was born in 1471 in
Hampi, Karnataka, to Tuluva Narasa Nayaka, an army commander under Saluva
Narasimha Deva Raya, and Nagala Devi.His father established the Tuluva
Dynasty after the death of Saluva Narasimha to prevent it from splitting up.He ascended the throne in 1509 and
developed a strong relationship with the empire’s Prime Minister, Timmarusu,
whom he looked upon as a fatherly figure.He was crowned during the gloomiest
period of the Vijayanagara Empire and hence, spent the first few years of his
reign battling sieges and conquests to consolidate the kingdom.Since the Portuguese dominated the sea
trade along the Indian coastline, he developed friendly relations with them,
following which he traded Arabian horses and guns from the Portuguese
merchants.He engaged Portuguese engineers in
improving the supply of water in Vijayanagara City, apart from receiving arms and
war materials for invading Raichur.Following the defeat of the Sultan of
Bijapur, Sultan Mahmud, in 1509 at his hands, towns and villages in Vijayanagar
saved from annual raids by the Deccan sultans.He annexed Raichur Doab and
subsequently, raided Bidar, Gulbarga and Bijapur, thereby disintegrating the
Bahmani Sultans, and took upon the title ‘establisher of the Yavana kingdom’.
By suppressing the local rulers, Reddys of Kondavidu and Velamas of
Bhuvanagiri, he managed to conquer lands reaching the Krishna River.In 1512, he defeated the Ummatur
chief, Ganga Raja, to expand his empire – as a result of this defeat, the
latter drowned in the waters of Cauvery River. The region was added to the
Srirangapatna province.Following his homage to Sri Venkateswara
at Tirupati after his successful invasion of the UdayagiriFort,hedefeatedtheGajapatiarmyatKondaviduandcapturedthefortafteraseriesof
initial routs, compelling the army to surrender.While the fort was seized through a
secret entrance discovered by Timmarusu, who was then appointed the governor of
Kondavidu, the son of Prathapa Rudra, Prince Virabhadra, was captured and imprisoned.As part of his third campaign in South
India, he conquered Bezwada, on the banks of Krishna River, followed by the
invasion of Kondapalli and forts in Nalgonda and Warangal.Prathapa Rudra’s plan of crushing
Krishnadevaraya and his army was crushed by his attack on the Gajapati Empire’s
capital, Cuttack, forcing the former to surrender.A treaty was signed in 1518, according
to which the territories in the Odisha kingdom on the north of Krishna River
were returned to the Gajapati ruler while maintaining complete peace between
the two empires.After completely thrashing the Bijapur
army, he destroyed the fort of Gulbarga, the former Bahmani capital, though he
reinstated the kingdom to Muhammad Shah.By invading and conquering the
different territories in the Bahmani kingdom, he succeeded in expanding his
empire to South India.

Due to his high respect and support
for art and Telugu literature, his reigning period came to be known as the
golden age of Telugu literature, though Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil literates
were also patronized.He appointed Ashtadiggajas, or eight
poets, in his court – Pingali Surana, Nandi Thimmana, Dhurjati, Ramaraja
Bhushanudu, Madayyagari Mallana, Tenali Rama Krishna, Ayyala-raju
Rama-Bhadrudu, and most importantly Allasani Peddana.He attacked the unconquerable
Udayagiri Fort, ruled by Gajapati Prathapa Rudra Dev, in 1512 and after a year
of continuous battles, the Gajapati army surrendered and escaped to Kondavidu.
The bloody battle of Raichur in 1520 saw over 703,000 foot soldiers, 32, 600
cavalry and 551 elephants fighting Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur for the capture
of its fortress leading to his defeat, amidst the death of 16,000 Vijayanagar
soldiers.He was married to Tirumala Devi and
Chinnama Devi.He married Prathapa Rudra’s daughter,
Princess Annapurna Devi, who became his third queen, as part of the peace
treaty signed by the two rulers to establish peace and harmony on both sides of
the Krishna River.Being highly religious and devout
follower of Lord Tirumala of Tirupati, he donated numerous precious objects to
the Venkateswara Temple, including a jewel-studded golden sword and
diamond-encrusted crowns.In 1524, he pronounced his son,
Tirumala Raya as the Yuvaraja but the crown prince didn’t live long to continue
his father’s legacy and died, probably due to poisoning.With Timmarusu’s son rumored to have
poisoned his son, he got both Timmarusu and his son blinded.He declared his half-brother Achyuta
Deva Raya, as his successor and died in 1529, after falling ill critically.